Government travel card information for thousands of cardholders in Europe is included in the missing shipment of backup computer tapes of accounts lost by the Bank of America, military officials say.
More than 7,000 soldiers in U.S. Army Europe and more than 13,000 airmen in U.S. Air Forces in Europe are among the 1.1 million Department of Defense Bank of America government travel cardholders whose data is on the missing tapes.
The U.S. Navy has not broken down the numbers by theater, but a news release from the service reports 242,000 sailors and 56,000 Marines among those with missing data.
No problems have been reported yet, officials said Thursday, although cardholders are being advised to scrutinize their accounts for any suspicious activity.
In a telephone interview, Lt. Col. Lilly Lopez, USAFE chief of financial services, said, “Each base finance office is notifying each individual.”
Lilly provided a breakdown of bases as follows: RAF Mildenhall and Lakenheath, England, 3,649; Aviano Air Base, Italy, 2,047; Ramstein Air Base, Germany, 3,247; Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, 1,590; Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, 625; Lajes Field, Azores, 1,149; Naval Air Station Keflavik, Iceland, 328; and the 38th Combat Support Squadron, which administers geographically separated units throughout Europe, 1,296.
Col. Karen Dyson, commander of the 266th Finance Command at Schwetzingen, Germany, said 7,590 of the 28,036 accounts under her command’s purview are affected.
This does not include, she said, soldiers with the Army’s Installation Management Agency-Europe or 5th Signal Command. Those cards are managed by the individual headquarters. A IMA representative said it had 1,087 accounts affected. Numbers for the signal command were not available by press time.
Dyson said unit liaisons for the program also are contacting individuals in the wake of letters mailed to each affected cardholder by the Bank of America.
“We are receiving feedback from those cardholders that they have received those (Bank of America) letters,” Dyson said in a telephone interview with Stars and Stripes.
The Bank of America sent letters in late February to affected cardholders notifying them their account information was included in a shipment lost in December. Notification was delayed until approved by law enforcement officials conducting the investigation, the letter said.
A telephone number has been dedicated for anyone with questions or concerns. That number is 800-493-844, but is not toll-free from overseas.
Cardholders are being advised to notify the Bank of America if any suspicious activity shows up on a card statement. The letter from the bank promises scrutiny by Bank of America, too, of affected accounts.
Cardholders will not be liable for any unauthorized use of their card, the letter said.
